Psychology Definition

Type of psychology: Origin and definition of psychology
Fields of study: Classic analytic themes and issues; methodological issues
The term “psychology” first appeared in written form during the early sixteenth century
and meant the systematic study of the soul and mind. The meaning of the concept
changed gradually during the following three centuries, until psychology emerged in
the 1880’s as a separate field of study. Defined as the scientific study of mind and consciousness,
the discipline was by the 1920’s redefined as the scientific study of behavior
and mental processes, creating some significant problems. In spite of definitional ambiguities,
modern psychology is a vigorous and broad field of study.
Key concepts
• act psychology
• behaviorism
• functionalism
• psychological domain
• structuralism
The term“psyche,” while personified by the ancient Greeks as a goddess, essentially
means “breath,” which was equated with soul or mind. The suffix
“ology” means “science” or “study of.” Psychology, as originally defined,
then, means the scientific study of soul or mind. The term “scientific,” as
used here, means systematic; scientific fields of study did not emerge until
the seventeenth century.
Apparently, the concept of psychology was not formulated until the early
to middle sixteenth century, appearing first in 1530 as part of the title of a series
of academic lectures given by Philipp Melanchthon, a German scholar.
The first book with the Latin word psychologia (psychological) as part of the
title was published in 1594. When used by philosophers and theologians
during the following three centuries, the term had a gradually changing
meaning, with the focus being much more on the study of mind and consciousness
than on the soul.
Psychology, as a separate field of study, came into being in Germany in
1879 and, during the 1880’s, in many other European countries and the
United States. The field was defined as the scientific or systematic study of
mind and consciousness and was largely modeled after physics and chemistry.
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), the acknowledged founder of the new
discipline, believed that psychologists should be concerned primarily with
investigating the structure of mind and consciousness using rigorous introspective
techniques. Psychology was, according toWundt, to focus on identifying
the properties of simple mental elements and the laws by which these
elements combined to form the more complex structures of mind and consciousness, for example, percepts and ideas. This approach, and a derivative
of it developed in the United States by Edward Titchener, became known as
structuralism. Animal research, the study of infants and children, the study
of people with psychological problems, and concern with individual differences
were not seen as central to psychology.
Some of Wundt’s European contemporaries, however, such as Franz
Brentano and Oswald Külpe, argued that psychology should focus on processes
associated with mind and consciousness, such as perceiving, thinking,
and intending, rather than attempting to divide the mental domain into
simple elements. Brentano’s approach became known as act psychology, in
contrast to Wundt’s mental-content psychology, and the two perspectives
generated some interesting controversies. They did agree, though, that psychology
should be concerned primarily with the study of mind and consciousness
in normal adult human beings; animals, children, and people
with mental and emotional problems were not of particular interest to them
as subjects of research.
Also emphasizing conceptions of mind and consciousness as process
rather than content were prominent early American psychologists such as
William James, John Dewey, James Rowland Angell, and Harvey Carr. In
contrast to Brentano and Külpe, however, these psychologists were primarily
interested in the functions served by the processes. It was generally assumed
that each of these capabilities evolved to help humans survive and that it was
the job of psychologists to determine how seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking,
willing, planning, and so forth contributed to individuals’ survival. Because
not everyone adapts equally well to the challenges of life, this approach to
psychology, which became known as functionalism, as emphasized the study
of individuals differences in intelligence, personality, social skills, and so
forth, as well as applied psychology and animal research. Psychology, however,
was still defined as the systematic study of mind and consciousness.
Functionalism has its foundations in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution
and in late nineteenth century British psychology and applied statistics.
With the introduction of animal research into psychology and continuing
controversies over the meanings of the concepts of mind, consciousness,
and terms referring to the varying aspects of private experience, some psychologists
increasingly believed that a scientific psychology could only be
created if research centered on behavior (responses) and environmental
features (stimuli), both of which are observable. Therefore, when American
psychologist John B. Watson proclaimed, in 1913, that psychology should
abandon attempts to study mind and consciousness introspectively and redefine
itself as the scientific study of behavior, many of his peers were ready
to follow his call; behaviorism had its formal beginning.
The behavioral orientation had its greatest influence on American psychology
from about the 1920’s until the early 1970’s, undergoing a number
of transformations. During that time, most textbooks defined psychology as
the scientific study of behavior, or of behavior and mental and affective processes. Even as the limits of behavioral psychology, in its various forms, became
apparent by the late 1960’s, definitions of psychology changed very little.
According to most modern psychologists in the United States and in
many other countries, psychology is primarily the study of behavior, and
only secondarily—and sometimes grudgingly—the study of such difficultto-
define mental and affective states and processes as thoughts, percepts,
images, and feelings. Nevertheless, even the concepts of mind and consciousness,
the original concerns of psychology, have somewhat reluctantly
been readmitted to the field as necessary research concerns. 664